Wednesday, 12/23/2020
As we got ready to leave, it was so warm and pleasant that I changed from a long-sleeved shirt to a thin tee shirt. Ed was wearing shorts, but that seemed a little too much. Or should I say, little?
We got out later than hoped--10:10-ish rather than 9:30. Sitting on highway 380, four miles from home, waiting on the wrecker, I could tell that the temperature was dropping. (Our Jeep blew up and had to be towed to the dealer) When the Jeep was safely on the tow truck heading away to the dealer, we made the decision to continue with our trip. I wanted to take the truck rather than go without a backup vehicle, so we went back home and picked it up. We ended up leaving--for the second time--at about 12:30.
So now I was driving instead of riding in the RV, and that kept me preoccupied all the way, so I didn't enjoy much of the scenery. Of course it was the same old, same old to us--Sam Wrayburn Tollway (SH-121) to Fort Worth, then Chisholm Trail parkway south. The only wrinkle in that plan was that I hadn't fully sync'ed the route with Ed. When we got to downtown Fort Worth and my phone told me to take the left fork to stay on the highway, he ignored it because that would have taken us on I-35. I'd meant for him to avoid 35 EAST, not WEST. So he ignored the phone's directions. That was no big deal--those sort of things aren't a big disaster anymore like they used to be--but it did result in an unnecessary detour though downtown Fort Worth.
No matter, as I say. The GPS app on his phone got us back on track shortly and then we were on Chisholm Trail Parkway. The rest of the trip was routine. We made a fill-up stop in Lampasas (I think), and then it wasn't much farther into the park.
At the time we arrived, somewhere between five and five-thirty, it should have been easy sailing at the gate. But the office was closed and the guy manning the temporary gate was incredibly slow--he ended up giving Ed a hand-written "temporary" windshield tag. Ed went on, but I had a little...shall we say...issue.
Back at the gas stop, I'd gone to the restroom in the Mammoth-mobile and left my phone on the bathroom counter. I realized it as soon as we started to go, but I couldn't signal Ed to stop--he was already out on the highway heading away. So I decided to just do without it. And sure enough, I didn't need it--until we got to the gate. I had to wait for the slow guy to give me my own temporary windshield tag, and when I finally got it and pulled away, Mammoth had vanished.
No big deal--rather than go back and get a map since after all I had a map on my phone (except I didn't have my phone) I decided to wing it. I turned left when it should have been right. After circling around multiple camping loops for a long while, I went back to the beginning and turned right. But this time I missed the turn for our campsite because I didn't know the number.
Eventually I realized it was written on my tag. Looking for site #88, I went through loops for sites 120-132, 140-180, went back and found 61-72, assumed I was getting close....nope. I was back in the 100's again. Finally I went back to the front gate and started over, and of course, the loop including #88 was the very second one I passed.
All this canoodling around cost me half-an-hour and it was getting dark when I finally backed into our site. Ed had parked, leveled, and done the hookups without me. Which was fine, only embarrassing.
After that we were pretty much exhausted. I walked dogs while Ed cooked supper, then we ate and sat around in agony and lethargy for the rest of the evening.
The wind, which had shifted to the north and whalloped us all day. didn't ease up after nightfall. Mammoth shuddered and sang to the racket. I might have laid awake all night but Ed turned on the bedroom fan and its humming drone drowned out the wind. It was still out there, making Mammoth Rock, but we weren't troubled by it in the least.
No comments:
Post a Comment